First Seal Leads 2015 Surround Stakes Nominations

13 three-year-old fillies have been nominated for the Group 2 Surround Stakes (1400m), running at Warwick Farm this Saturday.

First Seal leads the nominations for the Surround Stakes. Photo by Steve Hart.

The feature fillies race is set to be a re-match of the Group 2 Light Fingers Stakes (1200m), which ran at Randwick on February 14, with seven of the 11 runners nominating for the Surround Stakes including the first three home.

Gai Waterhouse’s Adrift was a shocking winner of last Saturday’s race with a starting price of $41 at Ladbrokes.com.au that had been as long as $81 before the race. Adrift coursed three wide but was only just off the speed. She made her way one by one up to the front by the 500m mark but was still four wide up the rise. She kept coming to the line and stayed on strongly to win three-quarters of a length from First Seal with Slighty Sweet a further neck away in third.

It was the first test over 1200m for the filly, who will now run 1400m for the first time since finishing midfield in her debut back in November.

Waterhouse has also nominated Supara for the 2015 Surround Stakes, who finished second last in the Light Fingers Stakes. It was the first unplaced run for the grey filly, who had finished in the first two in all three of her starts during the spring.

John Thompson’s First Seal was by no means disappointing in the Light Fingers Stakes, despite getting beaten by long shot Adrift. First Seal has finished first two in six of her seven starts and is already a Group One winner after scoring the Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m) by three lengths in October. The filly will enjoy the step up in distance on Saturday, having won the Group 2 Tea Rose Stakes (1400m) in September.

Not everyone impressed in the Light Fingers Stakes. The Chris Waller duo Amicus and Winx along with Gerald Ryan’s Peggy Jean all ran unplaced in their first-up race and will be looking to atone for it on Saturday.